Throwback Recipes from Canadian History

For much of its history, the Cantwell family tended to the Cape Spear Lighthouse on Canada’s easternmost edge of land, keeping sailors safe.This hearty Newfoundland dinner recipe, filled with salt beef, pork roast, turnips and parsnips, comes from Gerry Cantwell, whose mother made it during his childhood in the lighthouse. Gerry was the last caretaker before it was automated in 1997.

This orange marmalade is straight from the king himself — that’s former Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King. This recipe was found in the King family collection and was so good the former PM mentioned it in his diary on multiple occasions.

During the Great Canadian Cookbook’s stop in Tofino, B.C., Marnie Helliwell brought this bannock to the potluck with Lynn Crawford. Marnie learned this simple, traditional recipe from her friend, Grace George, an elder of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations, where every family has their own unique version passed down from generation to generation.

Many Prairie families have a recipe for this much-loved pie that’s thought to have originated in the 1920’s. This simple vanilla custard pie has a graham cracker crust and is topped with lots of fluffy meringue.

An iconic Québec specialty, these meat-filled pies have a history dating back to the 1600s, and are as distinctively Canadian as it gets. This spicy, meaty recipe gives anyone the ability to recreate the iconic meal right at home.

Found in the official 1946 Canadian Army Cook’s Manual, these sweet, chewy cookies were likely eaten by thousands of soldiers in mess halls across the country.

This sweet and simple apple recipe is adapted from from Edna Staebler’s 1968 best-seller Food That Really Schmecks, in which Edna moves in with an Old Order Mennonite family in Waterloo, Ontario, to learn about Mennonite culture and cooking.

Long lasting, flavourful and packed of protein, Canadians have been drying and curing meat for generations. Did we mention that it’s tasty, too?

You can thank Eastern European immigrants for popularizing perogies across Canada. While this recipe, like every family recipe, is rife with tradition, the addition of cheddar cheese gives it a Canadian twist. Perogies are such a part of Canadian culinary history, they were honoured with a statue in Glendon, Alta.